Choosing a Reliable Online Scuba Store

Introduction

With the rapid increase in scuba purchases made
from online scuba stores, and with the expansion of the
number of online stores available to the buyer, choosing
an online store can be difficult.

It takes considerable faith to make large purchases
involving items that could affect your safety from a store
you don't know and from individuals you never see face to face.
However, making safe online scuba purchases can be done and
stores like The Scuba Doctor have hundreds of satisfied customers
that can testify that the buying process is satisfactory.

There is no question, the type of competition that occurs on
the internet will allow the buyer to save lots of money, as long
as the purchase is made from a reputable dive shop dealer.

Online scuba stores fall into several classifications. We will
attempt to describe the various types of online scuba stores and give you
some data to help you determine which type of store you might be dealing
with. While this information is not absolute, we think these
guidelines are fairly accurate.

Full Service Brick and Mortar Store with an Internet Sales Site

This type of online dealer is possibly the safest and most satisfying type
of online scuba store with which to do business. The typical store
that fits into this category has a full-service brick and mortar store,
serving a community of local divers. In addition, they
maintain an online store where some or all of their items are sold.

The Scuba Doctor fits into this category. The internet sites for
stores in this category are almost always professionally done and well
maintained. The stores in this category offer all of the services
typical of your local scuba store: training, equipment service and sales,
dive travel, and any other service you would expect of a brick and mortar
scuba store.

In these types of stores, you should easily be able to
get advice from a professional instructor and, in most cases, they are
more than willing to spend the additional time necessary to help you make
a proper selection. These types of stores always have a published
phone number and probably represent the most stable type of internet
operation.

Most important, many brick and mortar stores provide a
level of warranty that exceeds the manufacturer's warranty.

Catalogue Scuba Sales Sites

We include this category because it was once a considerable force
in the scuba industry. Many of the old catalogue sales sites now maintain
internet stores that fall into one of the other categories mentioned in
this document. These are often quite large operations and they are likely
to also operate a brick and mortar scuba store.

In many cases, the catalogue and internet operation is done under another
name not associated with their brick and mortar store.

Online Only Internet Scuba Stores.

Several of the largest online scuba retailers fall in this category.
These stores are often simply fulfillment houses, many also maintaining
websites for cameras, clothing, or other types of merchandise under
various business names.

These types of stores are usually very
reputable operations, but they seldom know very much at all about scuba
diving. You are not likely to be able to speak to an actual scuba
diver in these types of stores.

Auction Internet Stores

Auctions have become quite popular and represent a gigantic business for all
types of merchandise. The most popular auction site in the world,
eBay, even allows registered users to establish full stores to sell their
merchandise.

While lots of scuba equipment is sold on sites like
eBay, buying this way can be loaded with risk. There is simply no way to
assure that the product you purchase is new.
The shipping and handling charges for items purchased from auction sites or
stores residing inside auction sites is sometimes large, making the
overall value questionable.

Most of the time, you cannot telephone
these merchants. But worse, they can disappear as fast as they
appear. Despite the controls advertised by eBay and the other
auction sites, ANYONE can open a store in a matter of minutes. Many
of the stores described in the other categories in this document also do
some selling on eBay.

The Scuba Doctor feels more comfortable dealing directly with you
on our online dive shop and through our staff via your telephone calls.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow Internet Stores

There are literally hundreds and hundreds of these stores on the internet.
You might find a bargain or two here, but by and large, you benefit when
you are able to spot these stores and stay away from them. You can usually
tell this type of store by the really obvious unprofessional website
they maintain.

In many cases, stores in this category are
brick and mortar stores that really have every intention of becoming a
force in online scuba sales, but they simply lacked the skills and
know-how to properly establish an internet presence. The biggest
problem with the Here Today, Gone Tomorrow stores is that they
are.....well, here today and gone tomorrow.

Characteristics of Good Online Scuba Websites

While it is sometimes difficult to determine just which type of online
store you are dealing with, it is relatively easy to tell good stores from
bad ones. The first good indication is the presence of a
professionally designed and maintained website.

A professional
website will be pleasant in appearance and using the site will be a
seamless. A good website has pages that are well indexed and there
will be an easy way to search for the items you want. Moving to those
items will be relatively easy.

While many nice websites have
capabilities for you to enter search terms for the item you are looking
for, this is not necessary desired in a scuba website. A better idea
is an index and search routine where you can choose a category, such as
fins, masks, regulators, etc. or where you can choose a manufacturer name
brand. This is the type of indexing and search routine used by The Scuba Doctor
and eliminates the need for you to experiment with word
phrases that might bring up the item for which you are searching.

We think a good website should also allow you to go to any page you choose,
regardless of which page you are on at the moment. We call this a
flat navigational structure. Websites that have too many steps before
reaching the actual product page are often very difficult to navigate.

Another important feature of a good scuba website is the ability to
directly contact the people running the site. You often need direct
recommendations from the staff and an online store that does not give you
the ability to talk directly with the sales staff is going to cause
problems. There is simply no way for you to move from indecision to
proper decisions in these types of sites.

Another good indication of the quality of an online store is
the offering of a large variety of scuba merchandise. You should
expect several brands and as many as 500 plus individual items for sale.

Of course, without question, you should get absolute security when
ordering from an online scuba site. You should always look for the
little lock icon at the bottom of any screens where you enter sensitive
personal or financial information. If you have an older browser that
does not support this icon, you can look for the https:// beginning to the
web address on the checkout pages.

In Closing

We obviously think The Scuba Doctor
is the safest and most satisfactory scuba website you could possibly find.
Regardless of which scuba website you elect to purchase from, spend some
time getting to know the site and assuring yourself that you are dealing
with a first class scuba retailer. If you have any questions, please
fell free to contact us here at The Scuba Doctor.

Prices, specifications, and images are subject to change without notice.
We are not responsible for typographical or illustrative errors.
Some of our web prices are cheaper than in-store.
So please mention to our staff that you've seen them online.